AngelList Insights

I wrote a little code to analyze technologies in demand with new startups. I used the AngelList job board as my source and was able to pull about 1100 startup job postings. AngelList shut down their API a while back. I created the data files from a simple jQuery selector, once I had manually loaded all of the posts they would allow. Note that this behavior caused my AngelList account to be flagged for scraping and disabled, and they won't re-enable it.

Limitations

This is by no means a scientific study. Part of my task was to normalize the data the best that I could, which is tricky. For example, Ruby is rarely used outside of Ruby on Rails. So, if I saw a job post for only Ruby, I grouped them in with the Ruby on Rails posts, which may or may not be fair. However, Python is widely used outside of Django, for example, so I kept those separate. There are similar normalization problems with AI and Data Engineering. People refer to them in a multitude of ways, that at a nuanced level are very different. For my purposes, many of these terms are related enough to group together. I very well may have gotten some of that wrong. The code is there for you to decide.

AngelList is largely centered around startups. There aren't many large or established companies on there, though there are a few. This data is skewed and probably only applicable to US (largely Silicon Valley) based startups. Nonetheless, I still find it interesting, and I think there are a few takeaways.

My Take

It's no surprise that JavaScript is at the top. Deepening your JavaScript skills will open opportunities in practically every industry. It's a good language in which to go deep.

React is winning the JS framework/library battle, at least for now, which corroborates my experience.

Ruby on Rails is still heavily used and in-demand. As a Ruby on Rails developer and fan, I was pleasantly surprised.

I thought there would be more Elm. I hear a lot of Elm talk, but it is conspicuously absent from the list.

AI and Data Engineering positions are now everywhere.

Java is still everywhere.

I would have thought there would be a bit more blockchain. Even if I had summed all blockchain related terms, it still wouldn't be as high as I would have thought. News around price doesn't correlate with jobs, I suppose.

Results

Key - [Technology, number of job posts mentioning that technology]

[javascript, 324]
[python, 291]
[react.js, 215]
[rails, 190]
[data engineering, 167]
[node.js, 158]
[java, 157]
[aws, 142]
[ios, 133]
[html, 118]
[artificial intelligence, 107]
[postgresql, 95]
[sql, 80]
[c++, 70]
[css, 69]
[android, 66]
[angular.js, 61]
[docker, 56]
[go, 49]
[rest, 48]
[microservices, 45]
[django, 41]
[mysql, 37]
[react native, 37]
[git, 36]
[scala, 36]
[redux, 34]
[aws/ec2/elb/s3/dynamodb, 33]
[mongodb, 32]
[api, 30]
[kubernetes, 30]
[php, 29]
[typescript, 29]
[c, 28]
[data analysis, 27]
[databases, 25]
[c#, 24]
[redis, 24]
[graph ql, 23]
[apache spark, 22]
[vue.js, 22]
[elasticsearch, 21]
[hadoop, 21]
[tensorflow, 19]
[ember.js, 17]
[jquery, 15]
[nosql, 15]
[heroku, 14]
[flask, 13]
[kafka, 13]
[selenium, 13]
[kotlin, 12]
[r, 12]
[unity, 11]
[ansible, 10]
[elixir, 10]
[ethereum, 10]
[google cloud platform, 10]
[json, 10]
[json / xml / html / javascript / jquery, 10]
[sass, 10]
[amazon redshift, 9]
[bash, 9]
[blockchain, 8]
[webpack, 8]
[firebase, 7]
[nlp, 7]
[rabbitmq, 7]
[terraform, 7]
[apache cassandra, 6]
[data modeling, 6]
[rust​, 6]
[spring, 6]
[webgl, 6]
[3d printing, 5]
[ajax, 5]
[backbone.js, 5]
[bootstrap, 5]
[clojure, 5]
[d3.js, 5]
[sql server, 5]
[bitcoin, 4]
[bluetooth, 4]
[cryptography, 4]
[cuda, 4]
[data management, 4]
[flux, 4]
[hipaa, 4]
[jenkins, 4]
[laravel, 4]
[matlab, 4]
[opengl, 4]
[twilio, 4]
[webrtc, 4]
[algorithmic trading, 3]
[apache hadoop, 3]
[babeljs, 3]
[chef, 3]
[coffeescript, 3]
[embedded linux, 3]
[google analytics, 3]
[graph database, 3]
[meteor, 3]
[mobx, 3]
[nginx, 3]
[numpy/scipy/pandas/scikit-learn, 3]
[opencv, 3]
[scheme, 3]
[akka, 2]
[amazon kinesis, 2]
[apache flink, 2]
[apache kafka, 2]
[appium, 2]
[assembly language, 2]
[aws lambda, 2]
[caffe, 2]
[clojurescript, 2]
[cython, 2]
[digital signal processing, 2]
[glsl, 2]
[haskell, 2]
[hl7, 2]
[kibana, 2]
[lamp, 2]
[nltk, 2]
[play framework, 2]
[puppet, 2]
[python flask, 2]
[pytorch, 2]
[rf, 2]
[robot operating system (ros), 2]
[scikit-learn, 2]
[snmp, 2]
[socket.io, 2]
[ssl, 2]
[torch, 2]
[travis ci, 2]
[web sockets, 2]
[wordpress, 2]
[zeplin, 2]
[action cable, 1]
[amazon s3, 1]
[android fragment, 1]
[android wear, 1]
[apache hive, 1]
[apple watch, 1]
[azure, 1]
[branch.io, 1]
[cad, 1]
[caffe2, 1]
[capybara, 1]
[celery, 1]
[cocatouch, 1]
[dynamodb, 1]
[elastic beanstalk, 1]
[facebook api, 1]
[fortran, 1]
[fpga, 1]
[gaussian 09, 1]
[gdal, 1]
[geographic information system (gis), 1]
[google bigquery, 1]
[google cloud, 1]
[google maps api, 1]
[gradle, 1]
[health kit, 1]
[hibernate, 1]
[ipfs, 1]
[jade, 1]
[jest, 1]
[less, 1]
[llvm, 1]
[loopback.js, 1]
[lua, 1]
[lucene, 1]
[mariadb, 1]
[mcu, 1]
[mongoose, 1]
[neo4j, 1]
[nvd3.js, 1]
[olap, 1]
[pci/dss, 1]
[postgis, 1]
[pyramid, 1]
[pytest, 1]
[rspec, 1]
[rtos, 1]
[sails.js, 1]
[severless, 1]
[sidekiq, 1]
[sinatra, 1]
[soc, 1]
[solr, 1]
[sqlite, 1]
[three.js, 1]
[uikit, 1]
[web3.js, 1]
[xml, 1]